St. Johnís Hospitalís proposed $8.5 million purchase of an outpatient surgery center on Springfieldís west side from ophthalmologist Dr. Sandra Yeh was approved Thursday by a state health-care regulatory board.

Yehís Prairie Surgery Center for eye and orthopedic surgeries at 2020 W. Iles Ave. will be renamed St. Johnís Hospital Surgery Suites after unanimous approval by the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board at its meeting in Bolingbrook.

St. Johnís was interested in the business because of the convenience it can offer patients needing elective procedures such as cataract surgery, according to Dr. Charles Lucore, a Hospital Sisters Health System vice president who will become St. Johnís CEO in April.

ďDr. Yeh has put in place a quality operation there,Ē Lucore said. ďIt provides patients a very predictable, quality experience.Ē

St. Johnís will hire 19 of Yehís employees who staff the surgery center and offer them signing bonuses of $500 to $2,500, according to documents St. Johnís filed with the state.

The hospital plans to lease from Yeh the building in which the surgery center operates.

Yeh, 51, has employed more than 80 people at the surgery center and the adjoining group practice of ophthalmologists and optometrists known as Prairie Eye and Lasik Center, all of which are based at the Iles Avenue site.